Agricultural crop analysis drone

ABSTRACT

A method and system utilizing one or more agricultural drones in combination with agricultural equipment, e.g., an agricultural boom sprayer, to evaluate the crops being farmed, and to improve the real-time delivery and dispensing of liquid from the sprayer including monitoring and verifying that the liquid is being dispensed correctly and/or in accordance with a desired distribution pattern or level.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to agricultural farming, and,more particularly, to an agricultural drone for use in combination withagricultural equipment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Modern farming continues to make significant strides in the industry'sability to produce larger and more robust foods in response to demandand increasing populations. For example, advances in chemicalengineering, fertilization, irrigation, soil analysis and equipment(hardware and software) have revolutionized crop production andassociated systems. In this evolution of farming techniques, modernfarming has increasingly turned to technological advances in the fullstream of farming such as planting, tending and harvesting of cropswhich requires a wide range of tools, equipment, machinery, chemicalsand other materials.

For example, vehicle mounted spraying systems incorporating a boom thatextends laterally on both sides of a vehicle such as a tractor arecommonly used to spray agricultural crops with liquid based productssuch as fertilizers or other chemicals. Typically, these types ofspraying systems are mounted to the rear of the vehicle which will alsocarry a tank containing the liquid that is to be sprayed. To ensure thatthe correct amount of liquid is sprayed, the spraying system isconfigured so that a given flow rate is dispensed from a plurality ofsprayers located along the arm at a predetermined height above thesurface to be sprayed. Often these vehicle mounted spraying systems willincorporate a height adjustment capability to allow the overall heightof the boom to be adjusted as desired. Booms vary in size, with typicalwing tip to wing tip lengths of 90 feet, 120 feet and 150 feet.

Such spraying systems prove very adequate over flat terrain, however,where the surface to be sprayed is undulating or sloped simple heightadjustment of the boom relative to the vehicle is not sufficient as theground to the right of the vehicle may be elevated with respect theground surface to the left of the vehicle. To overcome this problem, theboom is commonly divided into separate articulated arms or wings each ofwhich are independently adjustable by hydraulic rams which function toraise or lower the booms in accordance with a control signal provided byultrasonic distance sensors located on each wing. These distance sensorsmeasure the distance between the wing and the ground surface. In thismanner, either the left or right wing of the boom may be automaticallyraised or lowered as required.

However, there are a number of disadvantages with this approach. As thewings extend for relatively large distances from the vehicle, the wingsare mounted to a central rigid support structure which itself isresiliently mounted to the vehicle. This resilient mounting includes acombination of springs, shock absorbers and pendulums so as to absorbsevere twisting and movement shocks and provide some mechanical selflevelling of the boom. This mounting also provides approximately ±10° oftravel in the roll direction which functions to absorb the significantstresses that the central support structure would otherwise encounter ifit were to be rigidly mounted to the vehicle.

Unfortunately, the effect of this resilient mounting is to greatlyreduce the stability of the wing height control as, for example, raisingthe left wing to compensate for a raised ground profile in this regionwill in fact cause the right wing to pivot upwardly due to the torqueimparted on the entire boom by the redistribution of weight on the lefthand side. This will then result in a control signal being sent to theright hand side to lower the right wing, thereby leading to a potentialinstability. Eventually, the boom will reach equilibrium but only aftera delay of approximately one to three seconds during which time thesprayed liquid will not be dispensed in the correct amounts over theground.

Another significant disadvantage of existing vehicle mounted spraysystems occurs when the vehicle encounters a local undulation in thesurface such as a rock or a rut in the ground that causes the vehicle torapidly change lateral slope angle. In extreme circumstances, this couldcause the tip of a wing to impact the ground as the speed of response ofthe ultrasonic distance sensors located on the wings is not rapid enoughto prevent this from occurring. Even in the case where an impact isavoided, the raising of the wing to avoid the impact will cause theraising of the opposed wing as discussed earlier, once again resultingin a certain instability of the spraying system.

As highlighted above, the terrain over which such sprayers systemsoperate can heavily impact the overall stability of the sprayer and theperformance of the sprayer in terms of dispensing the specific liquid(e.g., fertilizer) at the desired rate and coverage area. In the fieldof precision agriculture, agricultural drones and/or so-called unmannedaerial vehicles (UAV) exist that are used to study terrains and havebeen used to capture highly accurate images of fields and crops thatcover hundreds of hectares/acres in a single flight. Such image data iscombined with available post-flight data/image processing software totransform the captured images into, for example, one or more orthomosaicimages and/or digital elevation models, generate custom vegetationindices to detect structural, chlorophyll and water stresses and/orevaluate irrigation management. For example, the images and otherinformation collected by such agricultural drones can be analyzed on apost-flight basis using available image processing and data processingsoftware that will provide normalized differential vegetation index(NDVI) maps, 2D index maps, 2D geo-referenced orthomosaics, 3D texturedmesh, 3D digital surface models (DSM), contour lines, application maps,thermal field maps, reflectance maps and other crop monitoring/analysis.For example, a post-flight reflectance map (in a well-known shapefile(SHP) format) of selected crops can be imported into available farmmanagement software for further diagnosis and/or imported directly intoa tractor console. However, such analysis is on a post-flight basis.

Therefore, a need exists for an improved technique that utilizesagricultural drones to improve the use, control and effectiveness ofagricultural boom sprayers in real-time.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE EMBODIMENTS

In accordance with various embodiments, one or more agricultural dronesare used in combination with agricultural equipment, e.g., anagricultural boom sprayer, to improve the real-time delivery anddispensing of liquid from the sprayer including monitoring and verifyingthat the liquid is being dispensed correctly and/or in accordance with adesired distribution pattern or level.

More particularly, in accordance with an embodiment, one or moreagricultural drones are dispatched to fly in advance of (i.e., in frontof) and in proximity to an agricultural boom sprayer with theagricultural drone collecting real-time topology, elevation and otherinformation (collectively referred to herein as “crop analysisinformation”) with respect to the crops and/or terrain being sprayed.Such crop analysis information may include multispectral and/orhyperspectral pictures. In accordance with the embodiment, the flying ofthe drone and the traversing of the crops by the agricultural boomsprayer occur substantially contemporaneously. In turn, the agriculturaldrone communicates such crop analysis information to the agriculturalsprayer operating behind the in-flight agricultural drone so that thesprayer can utilize the real-time crop analysis information to operatethe sprayer. The real-time analysis can be performed directly by thedrone and communicated to the sprayer for action, or the underlying datacan be transmitted from the drone to the sprayer console for completionof the data manipulation and analysis. For example, the crop analysisinformation can be used to stabilize the sprayer (e.g., in the eventthat RGG pictures of transformed into 3D maps of the canopy geometrydefined by the plurality of crops) or level the boom sprayer in order toimprove dispensing of the liquid being applied at that time.

In accordance with a further embodiment, one or more agricultural dronesare dispatched to fly in back of and in proximity to an agriculturalboom sprayer with the drone collecting real-time dispensing information(collectively referred to herein as “dispensing information”) withrespect to performance and effectiveness of the liquid being dispensedby the boom sprayer. In accordance with this embodiment, the flying ofthe agricultural drone and the traversing of the crops by theagricultural boom sprayer occur substantially contemporaneously. Inturn, the agricultural drone communicates such crop analysis informationto the agricultural sprayer operating ahead of the in-flightagricultural drone so that the sprayer can utilize the dispensinginformation to make appropriate adjustments to improve the overallsprayer performance. For example, the dispensing information can be usedto measure the real-time level of liquid being applied to a section ofcrops and whether the liquid is actually being dispensed at the desiredrate or level.

These and other advantages of the embodiments will be apparent to thoseof ordinary skill in the art by reference to the following detaileddescription and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a rear elevation view of an illustrative agricultural boomsprayer in accordance with an illustrative embodiment;

FIG. 2 shows a high-level block diagram of a crop analysis unit which isintegral with the agricultural boom sprayer of FIG. 1 in accordance withan embodiment;

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative agricultural drone in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 4 shows a high-level block diagram of on-board electronics which isintegral with the agricultural boom drone of FIG. 3 in accordance withan embodiment;

FIG. 5 shows an explanatory diagram of the use, in accordance with anembodiment, of the agricultural boom sprayer configured in accordancewith FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 in combination with an agricultural droneconfigured in accordance with FIG. 3 and FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 shows an explanatory diagram of the use, in accordance with anembodiment, of the agricultural boom sprayer configured in accordancewith FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 in combination with multiple agricultural dronesconfigured in accordance with FIG. 3 and FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of illustrative operations for agriculturalfarming utilizing an agricultural drone(s) for agricultural cropanalysis in accordance with an embodiment; and

FIG. 8 is a high-level block diagram of an alternative exemplary cropanalysis unit in accordance with an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with various embodiments, one or more agricultural dronesare used in combination with an agricultural boom sprayer to improve thereal-time delivery and dispensing of liquid from the sprayer includingmonitoring and verifying that the liquid is being dispensed correctlyand/or in accordance with a desired distribution pattern or level.

FIG. 1 shows a rear elevation view of an illustrative agriculturalsprayer 100 in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the presentinvention. Agricultural boom sprayer 100 comprises a vehicle 160 whichin this case is a tractor and includes a boom section 110 incorporatinga pair of opposed wing sections 111 and 112 mounted to a central supportstructure 113 which in turn is mounted to vehicle 160 by a resilientmounting arrangement 120 as is well-known. The boom section 110 includesa raising means (not shown), which allows the entire boom 110 to beraised to a predetermined height with respect to the tractor 160 whileensuring that spray nozzles 115 continue to point in a downwarddirection. The raising means utilizes hydraulic rams and may be via,illustratively, a parallelogram mechanical method where the centralsupport structure 113 is raised by a series of parallel linkage arms(not shown) extending rearward and downwardly from the resilientmounting arrangement 120 in a well-known fashion.

Each wing 111 and 112 may be separately articulated by a correspondinghydraulic ram 131 and 132 which function to separately raise and lowereach wing 111 and 112 in accordance with control signals provided by ahydraulic control system (not shown). Distance sensors 141 and 142 aremounted at the tips of each wing 111 and 112 and measure the positionsor heights of the tips of each wing 111 and 112. Alternatively one ormore distance sensors may be mounted at other locations along a wing toprovide position or height information at their respective position.Distance sensor 143 is also mounted on the support structure 113. Thesesensors allow the difference in the height of the wing tip relative tothe center of the support structure to be calculated (i.e. the wingheight error). The principles embodied by the various embodiments hereinapply equally to various agricultural sprayer and boom sprayerconfigurations as such the illustrative configuration of FIG. 1 is oneof many such configurations in which the principles and advantages ofthe disclosed embodiments apply.

In accordance with an embodiment, agricultural boom sprayer 100 isconfigured with crop analysis unit 200 as shown in FIG. 2. Crop analysisunit 200 includes communication unit 205 having transceiver 220, Wi-Ficontroller 225 and antenna 230, central processing unit 210, and memory215. As detailed further herein below, crop analysis unit 200, beingintegral with agricultural boom sprayer 100, will facilitate real-timecommunications between agricultural boom sprayer 100 and one or moreagricultural drones flying in proximity thereto in order to improve thedelivery and dispensing of liquid from such sprayers includingmonitoring and verifying that the liquid is being dispensed correctly.

In particular, FIG. 3 shows an illustrative agricultural drone 300 inaccordance with an embodiment. As shown, agricultural drone 300 includesa lightweight body and wings 310, motor assembly 320, built-inGNSS/RTK/PPP receiver 330, built-in camera 340, pilot tube 350 andantenna 360. Of course, agricultural drone 300 will include othercomponents and functionality not depicted in FIG. 3 such as batteries,ground sensors, onboard electronics and communications, onboardartificial intelligence, collision avoidance, to name a few. One suchcommercially available agricultural drone is the eBee Ag drone sold bysenseFly Ltd, Route de Geneve 38, 033 Cheseaux-Lausanne, Switzerland.Agricultural drone 300 is fully autonomous and will fly in accordancewith a predefined flight plan and in the case of agriculturalapplications the drone will capture highly accurate images of aparticular field or fields (having a single crop or a plurality ofcrops) covering hundreds of hectares/acres in a single flight.

FIG. 4 shows a high-level block diagram of on-board electronics 400which are integral with agricultural drone 300 of FIG. 3 in accordancewith an embodiment. As shown, on-board electronics 400 includes highprecision positioning unit 405 having positioning/communications module410 (e.g., a GPS/GLONOSS/GALILEO/BEIDOU positioning/communicationsmodule) and antenna 415 which communicates, via communications link 401,with GPS/GLONOSS/GALILEO/BEIDOU network 490 in a well-known fashion,communication unit 420 having transceiver 425, Wi-Fi module 430 andantenna 435 which interfaces with at least RTK corrections broadcast 495over communications link 402 in a well-known fashion, guidance unit 440,central processing unit (CPU) 445, accelerometer 450, gyro 455,magnetometer 460, camera and vision unit 465, power unit 470 havingbatteries 475-1 through 475-3 and power distribution board 480 whichinterfaces with rechargeable power supply 485 in a well-known fashion.In accordance with the embodiment, agricultural drone 300 will transmitand communicate real-time communications and information to agriculturalboom sprayer 100 as configured with crop analysis unit 200 (as shownillustratively in FIG. 4), via communication link 403, utilizingcommunications unit 420 with respect to a particular field and/or cropsunder investigation by agricultural drone 300.

For example, FIG. 5 shows an explanatory diagram 500 of an embodimentutilizing agricultural boom sprayer 100 configured in accordance withFIG. 1 and FIG. 2 (as shown illustratively in FIG. 4) in combinationwith agricultural drone 500 which is configured the same as agriculturaldrone 300 in accordance with FIG. 3 and FIG. 4. As shown, agriculturaldrone 540 is flying over field 510 having a plurality of crops 520. Itwill be understand that the plurality of crops may be any kind (one ormany) of crop, vegetable, grain or vegetation or other plant grown ontypical agricultural farms. This flyover by agricultural drone 540 willbe in accordance with a defined flight plan in a well-known mannerduring which agricultural drone 540 will be collecting real-timeinformation with respect to field 510 and/or plurality of crops 520. Inthis embodiment, agricultural drone 540 is flying and maintaining aposition in front of agricultural boom sprayer 100. In accordance withthis embodiment, the flying of agricultural drone 540 and the traversingof the crops by agricultural boom sprayer 100 occur substantiallycontemporaneously. Such real-time information will include elevationdata, contour data, topology data crop data and/or crop analysis whichcan be utilized, in accordance with an embodiment, to provide real-timecommunications, over communications link 530, to agricultural boomsprayer 100 that will assist in improving the performance ofagricultural boom sprayer 100. As will be noted throughout thediscussion herein, the terms “front” and “back” are utilized to denotedifferent positions of the agricultural drone relative to theagricultural boom sprayer. That is, “front” may designate a position inadvance of the agricultural boom sprayer as the vehicle traverses thefield in a forward position (e.g., from an easterly position to awesterly position on the field) and the term “back” may designate aposition behind the agricultural sprayer as the vehicle traverses thefield. As such, if the agricultural boom sprayer reverses its position(e.g., now traversing the field from west to east) it will be understoodthat a “front” position can then become a “back” position, and viceversa. The point being that such terms are used to designate differentpositions of the agricultural drone(s) flying relative to theagricultural boom sprayers as they fly and traverse, as the case may be,a particular field(s) and/or crop(s).

For example, referring back to FIG. 1, typically distance sensors 141,142 and 143 employ ultrasonic ranging to measure the height of thesensor above the surface (e.g., field 510) being sprayed. For example,ultrasonic sensors in the MA40 series produced by the MurataManufacturing Company may be used. As shown in FIG. 1, ultrasonicdistance sensors are placed near each wing tip for wing heightmeasurements, and on the support structure 113 for measurements of thereference height. Alternatively, two or more distance sensors may bemounted on support structure 113 to increase the reliability of thereference height measurement. Typically, multiple distance sensors canbe located on a wing and these can also be averaged or otherwisecombined to improve the estimate of the respective wing height andultimately assist in leveling agricultural sprayer 100 as it traversesover field 510. However, in such typical sensor arrangements, the numberof points utilized for such leveling estimations is limited by thenumber of sensors made available on boom section 110 of agriculturalsprayer 100.

Advantageously, in accordance with an embodiment, the real-timeinformation collected by agricultural drone 540 such as elevation data,contour data, topology data, crop data and/or crop analysis will beutilized and communicated, over communications link 530, to agriculturalsprayer 100 to assist with stabilizing and leveling boom section 110 asagricultural boom sprayer 100 traverses over field 510 dispensing liquid550 (e.g., fertilizer or pesticide) over plurality of crops 510.Communications link 530 is, illustratively, a wireless communicationslink established over wireless infrastructure, such as a third partysupplied cellular or Wi-Fi network, but in many cases where an existingthird party wireless infrastructure does not exist, the user mustprovide a suitable replacement. In such cases, one type of a usersupplied infrastructure configuration is a narrowband single frequencyradio system that may be operated over field 510, for example. Suchcommunication is realized with, for example, Wi-Fi radios as well ascellular phones (e.g., 3G/4G/LTE/5G), UHF radios and/or solid stateradios.

As such, distance sensors 141, 142 and 143 are no longer the primarymeans for leveling boom section 110 and can be used as a secondary meansof leveling. In alternative embodiments, agricultural sprayer 100 can beconstructed without such sensors if no secondary leveling means isdesired or to save cost or space. Leveling algorithms will take intoconsideration the geometry of the boom leveling system and itsdistribution of actuators and dampers, for example, and the controlsystem will receive as input data transmitted by the drone during itsin-flight operations over the field and crops.

As such, the real-time information exchanged between agricultural drone540 and agricultural boom sprayer 100 allows for increased stability andleveling precision of boom section 100 in that the type of and precisionof the delivered real-time information far exceeds that of traditionalleveling techniques of boom sprayers. Further, given that the conditionsassociated with field 510 and the plurality of crops 520 can changerapidly due to a variety of adverse conditions (e.g., wind, rain, heat,animals, etc.), the application of agricultural drone 540 in real-timewith agricultural boom sprayer 100 allows for the mitigation of suchadverse conditions and their overall impact on the spraying of theplurality of crops 520.

To that end, FIG. 6 shows an explanatory diagram 600 of an alternativeembodiment utilizing agricultural sprayer 100 again configured inaccordance with FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 (as illustratively shown in FIG. 4) incombination with multiple agricultural drones configured in accordancewith FIG. 3 and FIG. 4. That is, agricultural drone 640 and agriculturaldrone 650 are each configured that same as agricultural drone 300 inaccordance with FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 and flying over field 610 having aplurality of crops 620. These flyovers by agricultural drone 640 andagricultural drone 650 will be in accordance with a defined flight plansin a well-known manner during which agricultural drone 640 andagricultural drone 650 will each be collecting real-time informationwith respect to field 610 and plurality of crops 620. In thisembodiment, agricultural drone 640 is flying in a position in front ofagricultural sprayer 100 and is performing substantially the samefunctions as detailed above in FIG. 5 with respect to agricultural 500,as such these details will not be repeated here with agricultural drone640 communicating over communications link 630-1 with agriculturalsprayer 100.

In addition, agricultural drone 650 is flying in a position in back ofagricultural sprayer 100 and is collecting a variety of additionalinformation for real-time communication, over communications link 630-2,with agricultural sprayer 100. In accordance with this embodiment, theflying of the drone and the traversing of the crops by the agriculturalboom sprayer occur substantially contemporaneously. In particular,agricultural drone 650 is collecting additional real-time informationdirected to the efficiency and verification that liquid 660 (e.g.,fertilizer or pesticide) is being dispensed correctly (e.g., at thedesired rate or volume). If not, the real-time information communicatedback to agricultural sprayer 100 will be utilized by the sprayer toadjust the dispensing of liquid 660 onto plurality of crops 620 to thedesired level or rate, for example.

Further, in accordance with an embodiment, agricultural drone 640(and/or agricultural drone 650) may be used to assist the farmerstending to field 610 to identify individual crops of the plurality ofcrops 620 which may be suffering or need additional further attention,for example, suffering from drought or under-fertilization. As such,agricultural drone 640 may be programmed (via camera and vision unit 465as shown in FIG. 4) to capture photographs and/or videos of particularcrops and such information can be transmitted (via communications unit420) to the farmer for analysis. Thereafter, the farmer may communicatefurther instructions back to agricultural drone 640 for furtherinformation collection and/or making specified adjustments toagricultural sprayer 100. The analysis may also provide the farmer withadvance warning signs directed to water or drainage conditions specificto a particular section of field 610 and/or identify when harvesting offield 610 should occur and which crops of the plurality of crops 620 aremature enough for harvesting.

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of illustrative operations 700 for agriculturalfarming utilizing agricultural drone(s) for agricultural crop analysisin accordance with an embodiment. In accordance with the operations ofFIG. 7, at step 710, an agricultural drone (i.e., a first agriculturaldrone) is flown in front of an agricultural boom sprayer that istraversing a field having a plurality of crops and, at step 720,collecting real-time information associated with the field and/or theplurality of crops (e.g., crop analysis, contour, elevation, etc., asdetailed herein above) from the first agricultural drone. At step 730,the collected information is transmitted and communicated, in real-time,from the first agricultural drone to the agricultural boom sprayer, asdetailed herein above, and, at step 740, the agricultural boom sprayerutilizes the received information for adjustment purposes (e.g.,leveling the boom).

Advantageously, the real-time collection, communication and utilizationof agricultural specific information, in accordance with the embodiment,is realized and exchanged between the agricultural drone andagricultural boom sprayer for use in the immediate control of andadaption by the agricultural boom sprayer, as detailed herein above. Inaddition to the above-described steps, there is also an option ofmonitoring, at step 750, the agricultural boom sprayer during operation.If such monitoring is desired, another agricultural drone (i.e., asecond agricultural drone) is flown, at step 760, in back of theagricultural boom sprayer that is traversing the field having theplurality of crops and, at step 770, collecting real-time informationassociated with the field and/or the plurality of crops (e.g., cropanalysis, fertilizer coverage, dispensed liquid levels, as detailedherein above) from the second agricultural drone. In accordance withthis embodiment, the flying of the drones and the traversing of thecrops by the agricultural boom sprayer occur substantiallycontemporaneously. At step 780, the collected information is transmittedand communicated, in real-time, from the second agricultural drone tothe agricultural boom sprayer, as detailed herein above, and, at step790, the agricultural boom sprayer utilized the received information foradjustment purposes (e.g., correcting the dispense rate of the liquid).

As detailed above, the various embodiments herein can be embodied in theform of methods and apparatuses for practicing those methods. Thedisclosed methods may be performed by a combination of hardware,software, firmware, middleware, and computer-readable medium(collectively “communications device”) installed in and/orcommunicatively connected to a processor or the like. FIG. 8 is ahigh-level block diagram of crop analysis unit 800 which is analternative configuration of exemplary crop analysis unit 200 (as shownin FIG. 2) that may be used for enabling agricultural drone(s) foragricultural crop analysis in accordance with the various embodimentsherein.

Crop analysis unit 800 comprises a processor 810 operatively coupled toa data storage device 820 and a memory 830. Processor 810 controls theoverall operation of crop analysis unit 800 by executing computerprogram instructions that define such operations. Communications bus 860facilitates the coupling and communication between the variouscomponents of crop analysis unit 800. The computer program instructionsmay be stored in data storage device 820, or a non-transitory computerreadable medium, and loaded into memory 830 when execution of thecomputer program instructions is desired.

Thus, certain of the steps of the disclosed method (see, e.g., FIG. 7)and the associated discussion herein above can be defined by thecomputer program instructions stored in memory 830 and/or data storagedevice 820 and controlled by processor 810 executing the computerprogram instructions. For example, the computer program instructions canbe implemented as computer executable code programmed by one skilled inthe art to perform the illustrative operations defined by the disclosedmethod. Accordingly, by executing the computer program instructions,processor 810 executes an algorithm defined by the disclosed method.Crop analysis unit 800 also includes one or more communicationsinterface 850 for communicating with other devices via a network (e.g.,a wireless communications network) or communications protocol (e.g.,Bluetooth®). For example, such communication interfaces may be areceiver, transceiver or modem for exchanging wired or wirelesscommunications in any number of well-known fashions. Crop analysis unit400 also includes one or more input/output devices 840 that enable userinteraction with crop analysis unit 800 (e.g., camera, display,keyboard, mouse, speakers, microphone, buttons, etc.).

Processor 810 may include both general and special purposemicroprocessors, and may be the sole processor or one of multipleprocessors of crop analysis unit 800. Processor 810 may comprise one ormore central processing units (CPUs), for example. Processor 810, datastorage device 820, and/or memory 830 may include, be supplemented by,or incorporated in, one or more application-specific integrated circuits(ASICs) and/or one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).

Data storage device 820 and memory 830 each comprise a tangiblenon-transitory computer readable storage medium. Data storage device820, and memory 830, may each include high-speed random access memory,such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory(SRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDRRAM), or other random access solid state memory devices, and may includenon-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devicessuch as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical diskstorage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory devices,semiconductor memory devices, such as erasable programmable read-onlymemory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory(EEPROM), compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatile discread-only memory (DVD-ROM) disks, or other non-volatile solid statestorage devices.

Input/output devices 840 may include peripherals, such as a camera,printer, scanner, display screen, etc. For example, input/output devices840 may include a display device such as a cathode ray tube (CRT),plasma or liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor for displayinginformation to the user, a keyboard, and a pointing device such as amouse or a trackball by which the user can provide input to cropanalysis unit 800.

It should be noted that for clarity of explanation, the illustrativeembodiments described herein may be presented as comprising individualfunctional blocks or combinations of functional blocks. The functionsthese blocks represent may be provided through the use of eitherdedicated or shared hardware, including, but not limited to, hardwarecapable of executing software. Illustrative embodiments may comprisedigital signal processor (“DSP”) hardware and/or software performing theoperation described herein. Thus, for example, it will be appreciated bythose skilled in the art that the block diagrams herein representconceptual views of illustrative functions, operations and/or circuitryof the principles described in the various embodiments herein.Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flowcharts, flow diagrams,state transition diagrams, pseudo code, program code and the likerepresent various processes which may be substantially represented incomputer readable medium and so executed by a computer, machine orprocessor, whether or not such computer, machine or processor isexplicitly shown. One skilled in the art will recognize that animplementation of an actual computer or computer system may have otherstructures and may contain other components as well, and that a highlevel representation of some of the components of such a computer is forillustrative purposes.

The foregoing Detailed Description is to be understood as being in everyrespect illustrative and exemplary, but not restrictive, and the scopeof the invention disclosed herein is not to be determined from theDetailed Description, but rather from the claims as interpretedaccording to the full breadth permitted by the patent laws. It is to beunderstood that the embodiments shown and described herein are onlyillustrative of the principles of the present invention and that variousmodifications may be implemented by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of the invention. Those skilled inthe art could implement various other feature combinations withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of the invention.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for agricultural farming, themethod comprising: collecting information specific to a plurality ofcrops at a first agricultural drone; and transmitting the collectedinformation in real-time from the first agricultural drone to anagricultural vehicle traversing the plurality of crops, the firstagricultural drone operating independently from the agriculturalvehicle; receiving, by the agricultural vehicle, the collectedinformation from the first agricultural done in real-time; adjusting, inreal-time, by the agricultural vehicle at least one operation of theagricultural vehicle using the received collected information from thefirst agricultural drone; and wherein the agricultural vehicle is a boomsprayer, the first agricultural drone is flying in a position in advanceof the agricultural vehicle, and the adjusting, in real-time, by theboom sprayer includes a leveling of the boom sprayer wherein theleveling is achieved independent of any information collected by one ormore sensors resident on the boom sprayer.
 2. The method of claim 1further comprising: collecting information specific to the plurality ofcrops from a second agricultural drone, the second agricultural droneflying in a position in back of the agricultural vehicle; andtransmitting the collected information in real-time from the secondagricultural drone to the agricultural vehicle traversing the pluralityof crops.
 3. The method of claim 2 further comprising: receiving, by theagricultural vehicle, the collected information from the secondagricultural done in real-time; and adjusting, in real-time, by theagricultural vehicle at least one operation of the agricultural vehicleusing the received collected information from the second agriculturaldrone.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the adjusting by the boomsprayer includes an adjustment to a rate of dispensing a liquid from theboom sprayer.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the liquid is one ofwater, fertilizer and crop protection chemicals.
 6. The method of claim5 wherein the collected information from the second agricultural droneincludes a measurement of the liquid being dispensed by the agriculturalvehicle on the plurality of crops.
 7. The method of claim 6 wherein theadjusting by agricultural vehicle includes an adjustment of a rate ofdispensing the liquid based on the measurement.
 8. The method of claim 1wherein the collected information includes image data of at least one ofan elevation of the field, a contour of the field, a topology of thefield, and a plurality of crops.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein thetransmitting the collected information is over a cellular network. 10.The method of claim 1 wherein the flying of the first agricultural droneand the traversing of plurality of crops by the agricultural vehicleoccur substantially contemporaneously.
 11. The method of claim 2 whereinthe flying of the second agricultural drone and the traversing ofplurality of crops by the agricultural vehicle occur substantiallycontemporaneously.
 12. A method for agricultural farming, the methodcomprising: collecting information specific to a plurality of crops at afirst agricultural drone; and transmitting the collected information inreal-time from the first agricultural drone to an agricultural vehicletraversing the plurality of crops, the first agricultural droneoperating independently from the agricultural vehicle; receiving, by theagricultural vehicle, the collected information from the firstagricultural done in real-time; adjusting, in real-time, by theagricultural vehicle at least one operation of the agricultural vehicleusing the received collected information from the first agriculturaldrone; and analyzing, at the first agricultural drone, the collectedinformation to identify individual crops of the plurality of cropssuffering from drought or under-fertilization.